Celluloid Sunday!

Ha! Bet you figured I'd forgotten all about my commitment to developing a regular feature within the confines of this blog! The jokes on you 'cause it's Sunday again folks and we're gonna look at some celluloid goodness!

Honestly, I want to encourage you not to watch the preview for this film as I think it gives too much of what the movie is away; and in some cases (like this one) the viewer is better served going into the story without preconceived notions of where the film will take them. So don't click the link unless you absolutely have to or you just won't see the film.



Frozen River is an austere tale of hardship and it's filmed that way. In fact the print is so grainy at times one can be forgiven for thinking they are watching a vhs copy filmed off an old aerial feed. It's that bad in spots. . . but if I'm being honest. . . it was probably largely intentional. It lends a grittier almost more real sense of bleakness to the lives of the characters. It gives credence to their struggle with poverty, legality, and ultimately morality.

Melissa Leo turns in a very believable performance as Ray; a wife, mother, and employee, on the brink of losing it all despite her best efforts. The lines between right, wrong, and survival become blurred as we walk with her and Lila through dark and challenging issues of morality. At times the film does feel a bit contrived and disconnected from emotion.  The fact that the film received two Oscar nominations, Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly For The Screen, being one of them comes as no surprise. Writer/ Director Courtney Hunt is far from seasoned but there are seeds of enormous promise being sown in this film.

On a purely personal note I enjoyed the regional thrill of Ray and her boys excited by the prospect of going to the "Chopper". While I wouldn't say I myself was ever truly "excited" to go to the Chopper it was a nice reminder of Ontario; and though it is filmed and set in upstate New York, along the border on Mohawk territory. . .it's an area that so closely resembles my home in every way it's practically indistinguishable from Tyendinaga.

I tried to find you a nice video on youtube of Tyendinaga territory, so you could have a visual frame of reference but every link that came up (with the exception of a few squalid 2 minute drive through videos of Deseronto ) had something to do with protests, road blocks, or Shawn Brant. So instead I give you this picture of Smokin' Joe's Drive-Thru Smoke Shop. I think it's an apt choice in accordance with Frozen River's subject matter. Enjoy :)

Celluloid Sunday!

Almost didn't make it . . . again! Yeesh, it's been a rough week, with really no weekend to speak of. I really needed more than the one day off right now. Still overly exhausted by everything and accomplishing next to nothing. I didn't even manage to finish reading my book this week, how sad is that? Though friday night we did go to the race track with the man-thing's work people and bet on some ponies. We even managed to win a bit of cash at the end, thanks to my superior horse picking method of "I like this name". Highly scientific I tells ya. Then it was home for a couple of hours before heading off to the Broadway to meet up with Kayla and her "man-thing" Shawn for a midnight showing of Nobuhiko Obayayshi's Hausu.



This is a must see for the independent horror fans. Absolutely priceless; in fact I procured a copy last night just so Malcolm can see what he missed out on while he was away. It has total missed-birthday movie viewing potential when he finally returns this thursday! I read on the Facebook page for the event that this film could be described as an episode of Scooby-Doo directed by Dario Argento, and they weren't kidding. It's an esoteric romp through Japanese horror, viewed through the lens of a '70's esthetic. A little too self-aware, and far too colour saturated to be truly considered 'scary' by any stretch of the imagination; Hausu definitely has to be seen to be appreciated.

Thanks again for inviting us Kayla! It was awesome!

P.S. I think I'm overdue to send some happy mail back to a certain lovely lady in Ontario ;) Just might have to include some movie goodness!

Celluloid Sunday!

I almost skipped out on Celluloid Sunday today. Been feeling fairly craptacular this week and today certainly hasn't been any better (physically). Though it was a good day for many other reasons, including the discovery of the beautiful brand new Bulk Barn currently under construction over by the Confed Walmart Supercenter! I cannot wait for opening day, sweet bulky goodness; how I've missed you! Then the man-thing and I went all in and made our own gnocchi for dinner. . . completely by hand. . . from the potato up! We kind of ended up with mixed results there, but it was more than edible, and definitely something we'll be revisiting in the future. In the end I decided it would be fairly defeatist of me to allow my second posting of my only 'recurrent' feature to flail and die before it had even begun. So while this post might be slightly lackluster, I find it totally in keeping with this week's offering; The Puffy Chair.

Brothers Jay and Mark Duplass shot this film back in 2005, with a budget somewhere around 15K, (it's probably safe to assume they had to beg, borrow, and steal every penny of it just to get the movie made) and it definitely looks it too. I'd liken it to a very high quality home movie stock, but that never prevents me from viewing a film, and sometimes even lends itself to a higher degree of realism. The premise here is an atypical road trip movie focused on the main character Josh's relationships with his long term girlfriend Emily, and brother Rhett.



This film suffers from a very slow start, and never fully recovers; making it a bit of a hard sell to those who aren't comfortable with the nuances of indie films. The Puffy Chair has the distinction of being one of the first films branded under the then newly coined terminology 'mumblecore' that I referred to last week. Even though some of the scenes feel a little stilted and the acting occasionally leaves something to be desired. . . Mark Duplass' writing is what propelled the film to win an Audience Award at the 2005 SXSW Film Festival. It was a fresh look at topics that have become the mainstay of mumblecore in the intervening years.

Duplass's own relationship with co-star Katie Aselton served as the catalyst here, giving their character exchanges that necessary sense of authenticity which carried the film. Without giving anything away here, again you get the abrupt ending with far less of a sense of closure than even The Vicious Kind affords the viewer. It's almost as if you've finally arrived at the central conflict of the plot, only to be told the ending was never written. Nevertheless The Puffy Chair leaves you wanting more from Duplass; which he subsequently delivers with films like The Intervention, Baghead, and most recently; Cyrus (a film I'm dying to see) .

Celluloid Sunday!

I've decided what this blog needs is a recurrent feature. . . or two. Therefore this post is the first in what will become a *hopefully* recurring series aptly named Celluloid Sunday! So let's start with the best film of 2009 that you've never , no really. . . you've NEVER seen. Heck, you may never have even heard of it, unless you really dig Brittany Snow, or indie films. Not being much of a Brittany Snow fan myself, (sorry Brittany I'm just not that familiar with your work) that leaves me firmly in the indie film fan category.

Brittany Snow is shocked & mildly disgusted by ninjarobotsthoughts blatant disregard for her career.

Thusly, I give you my deep and abiding passion for The Vicious Kind. This awesome little film has won several indie film awards and was nominated for many more but will just never find a large commercial market. It sits on the edge of what trendy movie people call "mumblecore" blending offbeat humour with dark dramatic passages of character growth and inferred plot expositions. These are the kind of films that are either deeply personally satisfying to you, or lull you into a semi-comatose state of WTF is happening here? and why did I agree to watch this? A feeling which is immediately compounded by the increasingly popular abrupt endings most of these films espouse.

Hollywood's big budget movie making machine has taught it's viewers to expect all plot lines to be wrapped up into neat little packages with pretty bows by the end of every film. All character issues are resolved to the extent where viewers can walk away satisfied that they know how the story ends. We know how it all works out for the characters. Their lives are better, their problems are solved; and Hollywood has your money, and you have a false sense of serenity. Big time movie directors sell you on the 'happy ending' every time. . . and on the odd occasion they don't the critics write it off as being "artsy". . . or "making a statement".

Indie film makers regularly employ the abrupt ending because that's precisely how life is really lived. We all come into this world somewhere in the middle of the story and leave it much the same way. We are all works in progress. Nothing is ever truly resolved. The best we can hope for on any given day is growth, and that's what these films showcase. The characters persevere, they endure; and with any luck we get to follow along on their journey and watch them grow. Sometimes by only the smallest of margins, but small changes often foster profound results.

If you can abide by that . . give The Vicious Kind a shot. It's worth it.